Is Ann Coulture for real?

I keep hoping that columnist Ann Coulture is just trying to raise a ruckus with her columns, but somehow, I don't think that's the case.

Most recently she's complaining that the FAA and the DOT won't authorize airlines pilot to carry guns in the cockpit, with the rationale that pilots need to spend their time flying the plane, not fighting off terrorists. This makes a lot of sense to me for a couple of reasons. First, if the pilots get themselves hurt or killed fighting bad guys, who's left to fly the airplane? Yes, modern autopilots are great, and can land the plane on their own, but they have to be told to do so, and they're far from perfect. Second, pilots aren't trained for law enforcement or combat (with the exception of former Marines), so what makes us think that they won't pull their weapon on some drunk, or that they'll hit their target?

It used to be that there was a strict marksmanship requirement for Air Marshals. If you didn't pass the test, you didn't get the job. The reason for this is pretty simple. If you miss your target while firing a gun on an airplane, there is a tremendous chance that you'll either hit an innocent passenger, or worse, hit a window or bulkhead causing explosive decompression, resulting in fatalities. It was recently announced that new Air Marshals won't be held to the old standard, which makes me think that pilots wouldn't be either. Needless to say, I wouldn't fly on an aircraft that had a poorly trained, but armed pilot. The Air Marshals will be bad enough.

Coulture seems to think the refusal to arm pilots is akin to the refusal to allow "trusted" passengers to be armed, which is even stupider. Would armed passengers reduce hijackings? Yes. Would they decrease air travel related fatalities? Not likely. Consider the case (pre-September 11) of the passenger killed by other passengers while be restrained on a plane. With all the stress and alcohol associated with flying, air travel with armed passengers could easily become gunfight at the OK Corral. Remember all of the freeway shootings in Los Angeles in the early 1990's?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=108&e=1&cid=108&u=/020530/51/1m9op.html